By TIM McKEOUGH

December 24, 2013

Q. I have a home bar at one end of my living room. Is this an asset or liability for selling?

A. The desirability of a bar in the living room depends on many different factors, including the size of the room and style of the bar, said Marie Schmon, an associate real estate broker with the Corcoran Group in Manhattan.

But in general, she said, “Most people don’t need it, and they’d want to devote that space to a different function,” such as a dining area or reading nook. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone come into an apartment and be impressed by a bar,” she said.

A home bar is a bit of a throwback, Ms. Schmon said. Coveted in the 1960s and early ’70s, it now suggests “Madmen”-style excesses. “Most people these days lead healthier lives and are not as much into heavy drinking,” she said. Today, a wine refrigerator in the kitchen would probably be more impressive.

Stephen Sutro, an architect in San Francisco, said that an ostentatious bar “can make the whole room feel too swank most of the time.”

But there are tasteful ways to integrate a bar into a living room, and when done right, it can be a nice functional perk.

“All the bars we’ve done are concealed,” he said, hidden behind doors in closetlike nooks off the main living area. When the doors are closed, guests have no idea that a space is stocked and ready for entertaining.

That approach can also help create a sense of ceremony on special occasions; when guests come over, “the owner gets to open it up and show people this little secret,” Mr. Sutro said.

Revealing the bar only occasionally provides a chance to have some fun with the design, he added. The bar can have “a little bit more sparkle and flash” than the rest of the room because you see it only when the space is in party mode. For instance, Mr. Sutro frequently installs mirrored backsplashes, glass shelves and marble countertops in the bars he designs, along with integrated sinks and refrigerators.

But if you have a large bar calling attention to itself in your living room, you may want to consider removing it. “If it’s visually prominent and dominates the room,” Mr. Sutro said, “that’s going to detract from the value.”

Then again, he said, the appeal of a home bar is usually influenced by one other factor: “It depends on the time of day.”

Questions on repairs or redecorating before putting a home on the market may be sent to marketready@nytimes.com. Unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.